


Snow, Blanket Forts, and Maple Syrup

by sorryimabitanxious



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Bending (Avatar TV), Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Hot Chocolate, M/M, Nonbinary Character, One Shot, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Romantic Fluff, Self-Indulgent, Snow, Snow Day, Tags Are Hard, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:53:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28946202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sorryimabitanxious/pseuds/sorryimabitanxious
Summary: It's the first major snow storm in years and Zuko has the evening all planned out.Blanket fort? CheckCanadian Grade A Maple Syrup? CheckHandsome boyfriend? CheckWhat they don't know is that Sokka has a last minute surprise that'll change the night.
Relationships: Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 86





	Snow, Blanket Forts, and Maple Syrup

**Author's Note:**

> I'm here for some self-indulgent sweet fluff.

_ Slam _

Zuko tears their eyes away from the tv screen, their video game paused and flips off the tv. Huffing on their front door mat is a disgruntled Sokka, his coat soaked through and a mix of ice and water dripping onto the floor. He drops the reusable grocery bags on the floor, stripping away his coat and kicking off his shoes. 

“Hey love, how’s it looking out there?” asks Zuko as they slip off the couch and reach to pick up the grocery bags.

Sokka pulls the hair tie holding up his ponytail, shaking his hair out and melted snow flying all over. “It’s awful, like cats and dogs.”

With the bags in hand, Zuko teeters over to the kitchen, placing the heavy bags upon the counter with a thud. They start pulling out the various items to put away, a soup can here and there, a family size pack of Twizzlers, the marshmallows for hot cocoa later. But what stops them with a puzzled look spreading across their face is the bread. Not that it was just the wrong kind of bread or it got smooshed on its way home from the store, but the sheer amount of bread. 

Pulling out loaf after loaf, they cannot fathom why they would need four loafs between them, ‘What??? Wh- why?? The fuck is he planning?’

“Love, why is there so much bread?” they ask, not even sure where to store all this bread in their kitchen. 

Sokka walks into the kitchen, adjusting the hoodie that he pulled over his head, “For the milk sandwiches of course.” 

Sokka says this just so casually and matter-of-the-fact, that Zuko wonders if it is them that is the weird one here. Of course for the milk sandwiches. That’s what normal people do. Normal people buy four loaves of bread and two gallons of milk to share between two people. They are sure that they are going to have a stroke one day and it’s going to be Sokka’s mouth that does them in. 

“The fuck? No, the fuck are milk sandwiches?”

“It's what you do when it snows, my dandelion, you have to get the bread and milk.”

“To make milk sandwiches.”

“Yeah, the milk sandwiches!”

Zuko lets out a sigh and moves out of the kitchen to grab their wallet from the entryway table. Slipping a dollar out of the billfold, they saunter back over to the kitchen and stuff it in the _Sokka-Said-Something-Stupid Jar_. The jar is starting to get a bit too full at this point, it may almost be time to cash it out and treat themselves to a nice dinner. Sadly, it's not as full as the _Zuko-Wasn’t-Good-At-Communicating_ _Jar_ next to it, they’re sure Sokka’s going to wait until it’s enough to get that latest Star Wars Lego set he’s been talking about for a while. 

“Oh come on, dandelion, this wasn’t something stupid!” Sokka says with a chuckle in his voice, “It’s a Southern tradition and joke, you gotta get the bread and milk when it snows!”

Zuko wrinkles their nose in response, “so not for milk sandwiches? But still, four loafs?”

Sokka’s already putting away the rest of the groceries and folding the grocery bags to fit in between the fridge and counter. “Hey, I take snow survival very seriously. Thank. You. Very. Much. You weren’t here for the snowocolypse!”

Resigning themselves to the absurdity that is the South, Zuko shakes their head and a laugh escapes their lips. They’ve been seeing the snow forecast plastering the local news all week, all the reports and specials about how to prepare for a snow storm, and all the speculation of how much accumulation they’ll get. They’re expecting one of those rare storms, where a prediction of an inch may close the schools early, but five calls for a frantic state of emergency. 

They know they can’t judge, they’re from LA, so it's not like they have any more experience with snowy weather than their Southern boyfriend. While Sokka has spent the week preparing their little apartment as a snow shelter, Zuko’s been looking forward to getting to see their first actual real snow storm with him. 

Zuko had moved down South a few years ago and while they knew the weather was temperamental, all they’ve ever experienced so far that was out of their norm was the insanely stupid high humidity and a few scary hurricanes that made landfall on their state’s coast. That’s when they learned about how to survive the summer with a binder, why it makes sense that it’s too hot to go to the pool, and what a hurricane party was.

“Well, you can teach me more about milk sandwiches later,” they say while grabbing Sokka’s hand, leading him down the hallway to their bedroom, “I’ve got something to show you.”

Pushing open the door, Zuko pulls Sokka softly into the dimly lit bedroom, turning around to catch the look on Sokka’s face and they reveal what they had spent all afternoon putting together. In the middle of their bedroom is their large queen size bed, but not in the state that Sokka had left it this morning. Instead of the bed neatly made the way Zuko puts together every morning, there’s an explosion of pillows and blankets, as if Zuko had gathered everything soft and fluffy in their apartment and shoved it all on the bed. 

What impresses Sokka the most are the bedsheets that have been engineered with thin rope to create a tent over their bed. Fairy lights line the inside of the bed sheet tent and illuminate the blanket fort with a soft glow. The blanket fort opens at the end of the bed to provide a view of the large window opposite of the bed. The blinds have been pulled up and Sokka can see the snow has picked up even more than when he was penguin-walking through the salt and slush covered sidewalk with groceries in each hand. 

Zuko knew that Sokka hadn’t seen snow in a while, having to miss out on going back home to Northern Canada this winter season. While Sokka was preparing for their snowy doomsday prep, Zuko was putting together a plan to surprise Sokka with an evening of cuddles, blankets, maple syrup, hot cocoa, and maybe, if they were bold, going outside to look at all the snowfall. 

“Dandelion, what, how? You put all this together?” Sokka stutters out and launches himself in the bed-turned-blanket fort, the bed creaking warily beneath him. He wiggles around in the nest of pillows and blankets, taking in everything with all his senses noting the light smell of Zuko’s cologne wafting in the air. 

“What? Like it’s hard?” it was hard, but Zuko wasn’t about to admit this. Wasn’t like Sokka could be the only engineer in this apartment, though, maybe designing bridges should be left to him. Zuko knows their blanket fort was held up less by the rope and more by sheer spite.

Laughing at the ridiculous wiggle puppy that is their boyfriend, Zuko crawls into the blanket fort and curls up next to him. They wrap their arms around his waist, shoving their face into the space where Sokka’s neck meets his shoulder. It’s Zuko’s favorite spot, they could spend all day with their body melted around Sokka’s. They would never admit it, but they were rather physically clingy, latching themselves onto Sokka at every opportunity. Partly for the warmth, partly because Zuko felt safe in Sokka’s arms. It was as if every little anxiety, every worrying thought, the wrong pronouns said by others, it was all washed away and couldn’t touch them while they were in Sokka’s arms. 

“I know you couldn’t go home last month, so… I wanted to, you know, do something special for you,” they mutter into Sokka’s skin, placing a small kiss, “thought we could have as what you would say a ‘Sokka and Zuko Sensual and Soft Cuddle Fun Time in Bed, Special Edition: Winter Hellscape.’”

“You! You even gave it a Sokka name, babe, you know what, I didn’t think it was possible, but I’m going to love you even harder. Gonna love the fuck out of you.”

Zuko rolls their eyes, “Maybe… fuck the love into me?” 

Sokka groans, taking in the rare moment that Zuko was both funny  _ and _ sexy. He feels those words flood down to the heat now pooling in his stomach. Slipping a hand under the hem of Zuko’s sweatshirt and onto their hip, he maneuvers Zuko a bit so he can reach his face to theirs. 

“Shit babe, I’m gonna fuck the love into you so hard that you’ll be all sunshine. And rainbows. And radiance,” the words spilling forth in between kisses. “How do you do this to me?”

Hands move in a determined flurry, slipping under shirts, gripping into flesh, pulling at the waistband of sweatpants. Seconds pass into minutes with clothes tossed haphazardly onto the floor with reckless abandon. The touches become tender and soft between them and a symphony of moans spill forth out of the blanket fort. The fluffy flakes of snow fall from the sky just outside their window deafening the sounds of the city surrounding them, but none of that matters in this moment between the two lovers. What matters is eliminating the small slices of space between them, sweet nothings whispered with kisses onto skin, the tug of hair as sensations become overpowering.

\---

Sokka might sometimes be full of shit, but this was not one of those moments. He had promised he would make Zuko feel full of sunshine, rainbows, and all over radiant and Sokka always kept his promises. A tangled mess of limbs and naked bodies, they’re curled up under a heap of blankets, watching the still falling snowflakes from their blanket fort. 

“Okay, so how about raccoon or opossum?” Sokka asks, nestling his face deeper underneath Zuko’s chin. 

“Oh no doubt, raccoon. I’m already small, stay up too late at night, dark circles around my eyes-”

“Cute, but will fight.”

Time after sex was left for cuddling, for talking about anything and nothing, to just bask in each other’s post-coital bliss. Zuko strings their fingers through Sokka’s hair as they ask each other would you rather questions. These are the moments they cherish the most, the ones they can reflect back on during anxious moments, to remind themselves what they built when things feel too much. 

Zuko pulls their head back, placing a kiss on Sokka’s forehead and breathing in the sage and eucalyptus scent that his shampoo leaves in his hair. “Hey, I got another surprise for you.”

Sokka pulls his head back to look into Zuko’s eyes, “What is it?” he asks with excitement. 

Untangling themselves and slipping out of the blanket fort, Zuko saunters over to their dresser. The cold air out of the blanket fort nips all over their naked body, they rummage around the bottom drawer quickly so they can get back into the warm arms awaiting them in the bed. In their hands is a large rounded glass bottle, a geometric deer etched into the glass and filled with a rich amber liquid. 

Zuko crawls back underneath the blankets, presenting the bottom to the man they had left waiting. An exaggerated gasp leaves Sokka’s lips, his eyes widening, and his body alight with renewed energy and excitement. “Baaaaabe, no, you didn’t. When did you get this???”

He drops the bottle onto the bedding in between them, peppering kisses all over Zuko. Some are soft and sweet, some wet and loud.

“A few weeks ago, I’ve been waiting for the right moment to give it to you,” a blush painting across their face. Even after all their time together, Zuko still gets shy about these gifting acts of love. 

Sokka picks up the bottle, turning it over in his hands to read the print in both English and French.  _ Amber Rich Taste. Extra Rare. Escuminac.  _ This is not just any maple syrup, but Canada Grade A maple syrup. Being Canadian, Sokka likes to think of himself as a connoisseur of all things maple syrup (and hockey), to the point where he’ll even bring his own when they go to get breakfast at the dinner down the street. 

His eyes flicker from the bottle to Zuko’s face, a new idea clicking in his brain, “wait!!! Wecanmakemapletoffeeohmyspiritsiloveyoudandelion.”

Zuko laughs at the mess of words that came out of Sokka, but having fully understood. They had quickly learned how to comprehend and translate Sokka speak, “I know you and Katara always make it with your Gran Gran when it snows, I thought we could make some tonight?”

“First of all, never mention my sister or grandma while we’re both naked. Second, how did I get so lucky to have you?”

“Alright, alright lover boy. Get off of me, you start the syrup, I’ll grab the snow?”

Tossing the blankets off with such speed, Sokka bounces off the bed and fumbles around to pick his clothes off the floor and throw them on. Maple toffee was a luxury he rarely gets down South, they never have the right kind of snow to make it. With the bottle cradled in the crook of his elbow, carrying it as if it were a newborn baby, he makes his way to their kitchen so he can start boiling the syrup. 

Zuko is not far behind him, pulling one of Sokka’s oversized hoodies over their head. While Sokka turns left to walk into the kitchen, they continue forward towards the patio door. They had placed a few baking sheets out on the patio to collect some clean snow and now it was overflowing with a few inches collected on each sheet. Zuko takes the freezing baking sheets inside, their fingers unhappy to be holding such cold metal and slides the patio door with their feet. 

Sokka looks to see the mounds of snow on each of the baking sheets in Zuko’s hands and mentions that they should scrap the extra snow into a bowl and place it in the fridge. The kitchen is warm and the strong scent of maple syrup wafting through the air as it slowly boils on the stovetop. Zuko usually hates having other people in the kitchen with them, but allows it for sweet moments like these. They walk over to the pantry and pull out a baggie of popsicle sticks, having researched and prepared for this sweet activity.

With the baking sheets resting on the counter tops, Zuko opens the baggie of popsicles and pulls a few out so they’re ready to grab. The snow is starting to melt a little, but luckily, they have a third baking sheet sitting outside still just in case. Sokka is standing over the stovetop, watching the bubbling maple syrup with eyes keen on precision and perfection.

Flipping the knob for the burner on low, Sokka turns to see that Zuko had already prepared the snow. ‘Spirits, I love them.’ he thinks to himself. 

“Ready babe? I’ll do one to show you the Sokka way of pouring the syrup and mixing.” 

“The Sokka way? Why is there always a Sokka way?”

He huffs out of his nose, lips scrunching up, “Because it’s the correct way, Katara always does it wrong and makes a mess. You gotta pour it Sokka style.”

With the pot in one hand and wooden spatula in the other, Sokka pulls the spatula coated with the sticky viscous syrup out and over the snow. Syrup drips off the spatula in thin globs and Sokka quickly moves to make a puddle of hot syrup on snow. “You see, Katara always just pours directly out of the pot, but then it gets all over the side. But with the spatula, you can control where the syrup goes. I know, I know, genius!”

Placing the pot quickly back onto the burner, he grabs a popsicle stick and presses it in the glob of syrup, rolling it up around the stick. The snow freezes the syrup on the stick into a taffy like mixture, “And viola! That’s maple toffee.”

Sokka holds out the stick with the amber snow candy out for Zuko to take a taste. Zuko leans forward, eyes locked with Sokka’s as they stick their tongue out to lick up the popsicle stick. Lips come to wrap around the stick and a low moan vibrates in their throat as their tongue explodes from the sweet flavor of maple syrup. 

His lips part and eyes widen as he watches Zuko sensually licking the tip, “Spirits babe, you don’t know what you do to me,” though, Zuko knows exactly what they do to Sokka. 

But Zuko was in rare form tonight. Before Sokka can put himself back together to finish making more maple toffee (you don’t just waste perfectly good maple syrup!) Zuko bares their teeth and bites down on the candy with eyes still locked on Sokka’s. The moment is no longer heavy with sexual tension, Zuko’s teeth scraping the candy off the stick and smacking it around in their mouth. 

The two continue their little candy making process for some time, Sokka pouring the maple syrup and Zuko rolling the syrup covered sticks in the snow. Talking about what they want to do with their snow day tomorrow, they move to make some without sticks. These look like little shiny shards of broken amber glass. With the heated maple syrup depleted, Sokka turns off the stovetop and places the sticky pot into the stink, a problem for another day. 

While Sokka was pouring the maple syrup to make the shards of maple toffee, Zuko had moved to the burner on the other side of the stove top to boil milk. With two large mugs with cocoa mix in each on the counter next to them, they flip the stove top off and pour out the frothy hot milk into the mugs. Adding their pot to Sokka’s in the sink, Zuko turns around to mix the hot cocoa together. After much heated discussion on the different aspects and qualities of marshmallow sizes a few days ago, they had compromised and gotten medium sized marshmallows for their eventual snow day hot cocoa. Zuko places a few in each mug and lifts them off the counter. 

The two make their way back to the blanket fort in their bedroom, Zuko with the hot cocoa and Sokka with a small plate of maple toffee. They place Sokka’s mug, the one that says I’m an uncivil engineer, on the table on Sokka’s side of the bed and walk around the other side. They place their mug down on their end table and shimmy out of their sweatpants before slipping into the nest of blankets. 

Propped up on pillows, each with a mug in hand and the plate of candy between them, Zuko and Sokka watch the snow that is still coming down heavily outside their bedroom window. Toes rubbing up against legs, laughs filling the room at terrible jokes, the fairy lights twinkling above them, this night is perfect. 

And Sokka knows deep in his heart, that this is all that he wants. He wants more snow days, more shared moments of tender love, time spent doing everything and nothing. And it's then that Sokka realizes that this moment is the perfect moment that he’s been planning to do for a while. He leans forward and places a kiss on Zuko’s nose, turning to place his now empty mug on the bedside table and getting out of the bed-turned-blanket fort. It was his turn to walk over to their shared dresser and opening his sock drawer, rummaging for the item hidden deep within. 

With the small box placed inside the pocket on the front of his hoodie, Sokka sits back into the bed with a lot more nervous energy than what he had before. He takes his hands out of the hoodie pocket and takes the mug out of Zuko’s hands, placing it and the plate of candy bits next to his mug. Sokka laces his fingers with theirs, eyes slowly moving from their connected hands to the now slightly confused look on Zuko’s face. 

“Babe, my dandelion. My angry ray of sunshine.” the words spilling out of Sokka’s mouth, “thank you, for everything, for this night, for loving me, for being the light of my life.”

“Sokka-”

“You help me when my leg hurts, laugh at my shitty jokes, put up with me when I get in the way in the kitchen. You trusted me with coming out, support me when I can’t handle the bad days, and you’re always there. The constant in my life.”

Sokka takes his hands out of Zuko’s and reaches into his hoodie pocket, extracting the little wooden box with carvings from inside. Resting the box in one hand and flipping it open with the other, Sokka presents Zuko with a brilliant blue pendant resting on a long black velvet necklace. There are carvings into the blue stone, depicting the sun and the moon. 

“Zuko Lai, love of my life, my dandelion, will you marry me?”

Tears well up in Zuko’s eyes and spill over their cheeks, mouth hanging open as Sokka had flipped open the box with the intricate carvings. “Y-y-yes! Sokka, yes!” they cry out and a hand reaching out to touch the stone pendant. Sokka lifts the necklace out of the box, tears spilling out of his own eyes, and moves to tie the ends behind Zuko’s neck. With the velvet ribbon tied, Zuko adjusts the pendant resting on their chest. 

The night is spent with tears and laughter, promises kissed onto skin, bodies stripped bare and getting lost in one another. Legs become tangled and breath evening out together as they both slip into sleep, this little life they made together as perfect and beautiful like fresh snow covering the world outside in a pristine blanket. 

**Author's Note:**

> Come chill with me on tumblr @sorryimabitanxious!


End file.
